UPDATE with White House response Omarosa Manigault Newman claims in her new book Unhinged that her old boss Donald Trump repeatedly used the N-word during their The Apprentice days, and that a tape exists to prove it. But the White House is dismissing the ex-reality show contestant as a “disgruntled” former employee lying to make a buck.
“Instead of telling the truth about all the good President Trump and his administration are doing to make America safe and prosperous, this book is riddled with lies and false accusations,” said a statement released by White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders. “Its sad that a disgruntled former White House employee is trying to profit off these false attacks, and even worse that the media would now give her a platform, after not taking her seriously when she had only positive things to say about the President during her time in the administration.”
The White House response followed todays report by the Guardian website that said Manigault Newman writes in her memoir, set for an Aug. 14 publication, that while she did not personally hear Trump use the N-word she cites three sources who described the contents of the tape.
Manigault Newman writes in the book, according to the Guardian, that in late 2016 Trumps team held a conference call to discuss possible responses should the tape be made public. Later, a source from The Apprentice contacted her, claiming to be in possession of the tape.
“By that point,” Manigault Newman writes, “three sources in three separate conversations had described the contents of this tape. They all told me that President Trump hadnt just dropped a single N-word bomb. Hed said it multiple times throughout the shows taping during off-camera outtakes, particularly during the first season of The Apprentice.”
Manigault Newman writes that she personally witnessed Trump using racial epithets about White House counselor Kellyanne Conways husband George Conway, who is half Filipino – a claim Conway is now disputing (see below). “Would you look at this George Conway article?” the president is quoted in Unhinged. “F**ing FLIP! Disloyal! Fucking Goo-goo.”
Flip and goo-goo are epithets for Filipinos.
Conway tweeted this morning that hes not buying Manigault Newmans claim. “The allegation is not credible, and indeed is ridiculous,” wrote Conway, a frequent Trump critic despite his marriage to one of Trumps most consistent supporters, “particularly in light of the timing of her departure from the White House – December 12, 2017. Its absurd all around.”
The allegation is not credible, and indeed is ridiculous, particularly in light of the timing of her departure from the White House—December 12, 2017. Its absurd all around.
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 10, 2018
In Unhinged, Manigault Newman also writes that by the time she left the White House, she felt a “growing realization that Donald Trump was indeed a racist, a bigot and a misogynist. My certainty about the N-word tape and his frequent uses of that word were the top of a high mountain of truly appalling things Id experienced with him, during the last two years in particular.”
“It had finally sunk in that the person Id thought Id known so well for so long was actually a racist,” she writes. “Using the N-word was not just the way he talks but, more disturbing, it was how he thought of me and African Americans as a whole.”
Other Unhinged passages described by the Guardian:
- After Manigault Newman confided her desire to hear the N-word tape to then-White House communications director Hope Hicks, the Unhinged author writes that Hicks then told chief of staff John Kelly that Manigualt Newman was “close to getting her hands on the tape,” leading to her termination.
- While working on The Celebrity Apprentice in late 2007, Trump spoke often about Barack Obama as Obama was gaining attention as a candidate. “During boardroom outtakes, Donald talked about Obama often,” Manigault Newman writes. “He hated him. He never explained why, but now I believe it was because Obama was black.”
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